health reform

Introduction to the Helen Suzman Foundation Health Project

The mission of the Helen Suzman Foundation is to defend the values that underpin our liberal constitutional democracy and to promote respect for human rights. The Foundation works from the premise that health provision represents one of South Africa’s key human rights issues. In relation to health, Section 27 of the Constitution states that “Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care; […and that] no one may be refused emergency medical treatment”. As affirmed by Former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson in the Soobramoney case, as long as many citizens do not have access to socioeconomic rights such as health care, the commitment of the Constitution “to transform our society into one in which there will be human dignity, freedom and equality … will have a hollow ring”.

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